ECB makes little change to growth and inflation forecasts

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

FRANKFURT, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank left
its economic growth and inflation forecasts largely unchanged on
Thursday, predicting that price growth would raise slowly but
again miss its target of close to 2 percent in 2019.
The ECB slightly increased its 2017 growth forecast to 1.7
percent from 1.6 percent seen in September and lifted its 2017
inflation forecast to 1.3 percent from 1.2 percent projected
three months ago, ECB President Mario Draghi said at a news
conference.
In its initial projections for 2019, the ECB put inflation
at 1.7 percent, still below the target it has undershot for more
than three years despite unprecedented stimulus aimed at
reviving economic growth and boosting consumer prices.
The following are the ECB staff's new projections for
inflation and GDP growth. Previous figures, from September, are
in brackets. For 2019, the figures are the ECB's initial
projections.
2016 2017 2018 2019
GDP growth 1.7 (1.7) 1.7 (1.6) 1.6 (1.6) 1.6
Inflation 0.2 (0.2) 1.3 (1.2) 1.5 (1.6) 1.7
(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Catherine Evans)